Daily Times July 5, 2021 By 1986, Kurt Russell had established himself as one of the brawniest, toughest action stars in Hollywood thanks to bruising roles like Snake Plissken in Escape From New York (1981) and MacReady in The Thing (1982). He’d prove his mettle even more behind the scenes on Big Trouble in Little China, the cult fantasy-action flick in which Russell played a wise-cracking trucker who helps his best friend (Dennis Dun) save his fiancée from the grips of an ancient sorcerer in the underworld beneath San Francisco’s Chinatown — and which opened in theaters 35 years ago, on July 2, 1986. Russell fell ill with the flu during production, with his body temperature reaching 105 degrees at points. But he didn’t stop filming.